[ogpx] An administrative note about mailing-list participation

[Barry Leiba <[e-mail]>]

First, let me say that this isn't written to anyone in particular, nor
with respect to any discussion thread in particular, nor in response
to any existing problem.  The working group chairs (Barry Leiba and
Joshua Bell) and the Area Director (Alexey Melnikov) simply think that
it's a good idea to make this all clear.  Most of what I say here will
be obvious, but there are some IETF-process-related points.

There have always been participants in the IETF who choose not to be
identified by traditional "full names", preferring to use nicknames,
initials, or even email address alone.  The IETF has welcomed such
participants, and continues to do so.  Yet, the VWRAP working group
presents a situation unique in the IETF's experience with respect to
the culture of pseudonyms and other alternative names used by its
participants in other venues.

Anyone who participates in any IETF discussions, including here on the
mailing list, agrees, by that participation, to the "Note Well" terms
[ http://www.ietf.org/about/note-well.html ].  That means, in part,
that they're responsible for disclosing intellectual property rights
(IPR) of which they're aware.  Please be sure you understand that
point, and see the relevant RFCs (the "Note Well" notice has
pointers).  Clearly, if you have IPR to disclose there's going to have
to be some real-world identification involved, which will include the
real identity of the owner of the IPR.

Anyone who is a document author or editor must be contactable.  We
normally ask for name, affiliation, address, phone number, and email
address for that, but not all of it is always provided, and we can
work around some of that.  The bottom line here is that what the
authors provide must be given in good faith, and anyone reading the
documents must be able to contact the authors.

For other participants, identification doesn't matter, apart from your
agreement to abide by the Note Well terms.  As I said above, this has
always been the case, even without virtual worlds.  We ENCOURAGE
everyone to use full, real-world names and, when reasonable, to
disclose affiliations.  What we REQUIRE is that participants either
use a single, consistent identity or make it clear what set of
identities they're using.  If Joe Slobotnik, Shaquila Yazenzatta, and
the Lone Haranguer all post to the mailing list, there should never be
any question of whether or not they represent the same human
participant.  Misrepresentation along these lines might be cause for
administrative action.

It will also help if participants are familiar with the IETF Working
Group Guidelines and Procedures (BCP 25), RFC 2418.  The best
introduction to the IETF, for those of you who are new, is Paul
Hoffman's excellent document "The Tao of IETF":
http://www.ietf.org/tao.html .  Questions about the IETF or its
process are welcome, either on the list or in private email.  If you
ask on the list, please use a new subject to create a new thread, so
your question doesn't get lost in the middle of some other discussion.

Finally, note that you can contact the chairs and the Area Directors
for any working group through the tools aliases WGNAME-chairs and
WGNAME-ads.  For this working group, those addresses are
<[e-mail]> and <[e-mail]>rg>.

Barry (and Joshua), VWRAP working group chair(s)